Special December Disaster Recovery Deal: $7,500 value for $6,000.
More than ever, NOW is the time to get your DR plans implemented.
But do you have the time to do it? We can help with a complete bundle.
The software plus an engineer to install it -- on your site! We'll
deploy Double-Take on your NT/2000 servers and provide real-time, open
file, data replication. If you are running Advanced Server, two copies
of Double-Take INSTALLED is only $9200 instead of $11,500. Because it is
not a matter of "if" disaster strikes. DR is integral to the heart of your
business. To get more info, email [email protected] orVisit We Install Your DR: Special for more information.

EDITORS CORNER

2002 Crystal Ball Issue

It is a tradition that once a year, in the first issue of January, I
make predictions for the year to come. And last time around I did not
do all that bad. However, for 2002 I'm going to let you guys do the
predicting. The person with the best set of 10 predictions will be
published !! Here is the link to last year's as an example:http://www.w2knews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=120601-CrystalBall

So, pull that time machine out of the garage, travel 13 months in
the future, and tell us how 2002 is going to look?

PS: We are skipping the issues of December 24 and 27 during the X-mas
vacation. So nobody do something dramatic that would force us to drag
our sorry behinds back into the office!

What do these two have to do with each other? Well, if you need to
recover from a flood, it helps to know how many servers, workstations,
and other peripherals were there, what their function was, how they
were configured, which systems were really critical, and what their
interdependencies were. That means which one needs to be rebuilt
first, then second and so on.

The above shows that your DR-plan might not be complete. Your backups
are not the only thing you need for a fast and effective recovery.
This means that up-to-date configuration information goes hand-in-hand
with getting back up & running.

The Sept 11 attacks have clarified more what the DR trends for 2002
are going to be. DR-plans are going to extend beyond just the data
center. Boardrooms are now much more responsive to the idea of
allocating significant budget to building in redundancy for the whole
operation in an integrated whole. Often separate departments do not
work as a unit, but disciplines like business continuity management,
crisis management, communications, IT recovery, and facility and risk
management teams will have to band together and coordinate.

You will need to think in terms of dividing, distributing and dispersing
the mission critical units. This relates to the building as well as
the staff and your servers. An additional viewpoint to take is called
"impact-based planning", instead of "probability-based" planning.
Who is going to spend money when the chance of a wipe-out is 0.01%?
But it is much more painful to admit: "We did not do our homework,
and we were not really prepared for this."

Lack of time simply prevents many system administrators to actually
DO this really important task of documenting their domains. Especially
if you have to do it manually. That's why a few companies have jumped
into this segment and provide detailed configuration data. I'm giving
you the three that I have found to be the most effective. I'm sure
you will sleep better knowing that all your mission-critical boxes
are well documented.

Microsoft is changing the prices of certification exams worldwide. The
price changes will be effective for all registrations and voucher
purchases from January 4, 2002. The current exam price of USD $100 in
North America has remained the same since the Microsoft Certified
Professional program began in 1992. Exam prices in other countries
have remained the same since 1999. The price of exams in the United
States and Canada will increase from USD $100 to $125 per exam,
effective January 4, 2002.

What's New In Win DotNet Server?

Here are the new features in a nutshell, so you at least know what
to expect and what not. Keep in mind, DotNet is the server flavor
of WinXP. (We are really talking NT version 5.2 here.)

General Added Features:

Support for the 64-bit Itanium CPU

Enhancements in the clustering, 4-node support in Enterprise Server

Improvements in remote management

Development:

.Net framework integration with native support for XML and SOAP.

Integration of Common Object Model and XML web service.

Directory:

Support for LDAP-based single connection authentication of multiple users

Support for the popular inetOrgPerson class of objects to identify users

So from an Admin perspective, there is not much news to talk about.
However, more and more people are moving toward Win2K and Active Directory,
and we have found that the tool that really shines in that area is Fazam2000.
If you are going to W2K, or already have rolled out and now run into admin
trouble (group policies to be precise), this tool is worth looking at. It
will be just as beneficial under Win .Net Server. Here are more specs:http://www.w2knews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=120601-Fazam

New MS Support Site

They have pulled together a bunch of up to now different functions on
one centralized spot. The whole thing starts with the Knowledge Base.
The visibility of the KB search pane is persistent, so that prevents
the eternal moving forward and backward between pages. Good.

Also, it is now finally clear where to call if you want paid support,
both telephone and online.

The KB-search options are powerful. I'm not going into detail but you
should try them out. You'll like them, and there are more than 250,000
articles in it by now. The recent Windows 2000 Update e-zine mentioned:
"The search sorts articles by modification date, not original posting
date, which makes it difficult to identify new problems and issues.
Keep this feature in mind as you use the new search engine."
Good point.

The other sections are:

Download Software: you can find software updates, service packs
and patches, device drivers, and complete Microsoft products. They
are now really easy to find.

Product Support Center - Important Information by Product, like
Common issues, instructions, latest versions, and related sites for
your product (FAQs).

Newsgroups: Collaborate with others who use our products within
Newsgroups by subject. Still young but will fill up soon. Here it is!

For your year-end budgets, it's always nice to know which tools are
the ones that have floated to the TOP 10, so you can spend your money
on the actual winners in the market. So here is the year-to-date list
of best selling tools:

It is clear that NAS and SAN are needed to protect your data and
reduce downtime, Many vendors are now in the market with these kinds
of solutions. NSI (the Double-Take developer) announced that DT now
supports IBM's TotalStorage Network Attached Storage (NAS) products.
Double-Take is now certified for use with IBM's NAS 200, NAS 300
and NAS 300G products.

"IBM is committed to providing open and interoperable storage solutions
to our customers, especially in the area of data protection and business
continuity," said Roland Hagan, vice president of Storage Networking
Marketing, IBM Storage Systems Group. "By combining NSI Software's
Double-Take with IBM's NAS family of products, we enable our joint
customers to have a high performance, open system that protects data
and ensures data availability."

According to industry analyst firm, Gartner, the market for NAS devices
is expected to grow at 48.2 percent between 2000-2005.

"By extending the set of functionality offered through Windows Powered
appliances, independent software vendors (ISVs) like NSI Software are
able to enhance the capabilities, performance and availability of
NAS products for OEMs like IBM," said Keith White, senior director
of marketing for the Embedded and Appliance Platforms Group at MS.
"NSI Software's Double-Take application is a great example of how
replication technologies and service capabilities can be quickly and
easily extended to Windows Powered NAS appliances to provide a complete
high availability NAS solution for IBM's customers."

Transcender announces a special sale on single-user licenses for its
top-rated TranscenderCert exam simulations. Single-user licenses for
any TranscenderCert are available for $99 each from Dec. 4 thru Dec. 13.
That's a savings of up to $80.00 off each license. There is no limit on
the number of single-user licenses that can be purchased during this time.

"Since our last $99 sale was quite popular, we wanted to give our
customers another chance to take advantage of such tremendous savings -
up to $80.00 per single-user license," says Kim Giles, vice president
of marketing.

Sale prices apply to single-user licenses for both released and pre-
released TranscenderCerts. TranscenderCerts feature full-length exams
that simulate the actual tests in nature and difficulty, detailed
answer explanations with references to study resources, and a score
report history that pinpoints progress and weak areas. All Certs
are backed by Transcender's Money-Back-If-You-Don't-Pass Guarantee.http://www.w2knews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=120601-Transcender

The updated content includes a new tools CD-ROM that includes security
software cited in the book and fully updated coverage of hacks and
countermeasures for the latest technologies like 802.11 Wireless
networking, Windows XP, and Windows.NET Sever. Of course, the great
content that pushed HE to the top of best seller lists is still there
and completely updated: late-breaking information on the newest Windows,
UNIX, Linux, and NetWare hacks and countermeasures in the tried-and-
true Hacking Exposed format, updated content on Web attacks (including
the newest IIS 5 vulnerabilities like Code Red), new techniques used
by today's hacker to pinpoint potential targets via ping sweeps,
TCP/UDP scans, traceroutes, whois queries, and zone transfers; an
updated remote access chapter covering analog dial-up, VPN, as well
as the latest known security holes associated with software like
Timbuktu, pcAnywhere, ControlIT, and ReachOut; and much more. It's
35 bucks at Amazon and reads like a spy novel. Recommended!http://www.w2knews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=120601BOW-HackingExposed3